


End of Exile (with images)

by AskHisDisciple (PisceanQueen)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Other, Sadstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:39:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PisceanQueen/pseuds/AskHisDisciple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Disciple comes to take Darkleer on his last journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End of Exile (with images)

            The choked sobs tore through the quiet of the cavernous dwelling. If one were to approach the huddled figure in the darkness, they’d hear a wretched soul mourning his losses, lamenting the demise of his greatness, and see him weeping over his work. Amid the scattered papers on the stone table top there were tears in muted cobalt, the same color as the blood of their hulking owner, the troll once known as E%ecutor Darkleer.

            The E%patri8, as he was since derisively nicknamed, couldn’t remember how many sweeps it had been since he had begun his exile. At least a hundred. Maybe two. But two hundred sweeps was nothing for one of his caste. Those with his blood would expect to live at least three times that, maybe more. He often cursed his long lifespan for it doomed and shackled him to his torment and humiliation. If only he had the courage to end it all... but instead he was a weeping mess.

            The day he was ordered to kill the mutant was the day his life was ruined. He executed the caste traitor easily enough, filling him with arrows and burning his corpse to ash and bone, but when he got to the mutant’s matesprit he found he suddenly could not send her after him in death as the Empress bade him to. Instead, the E%ecutor let the olive-blood go; let her run off with the last scrap of cloth her Beloved once wore. He thought he saw something in that woman that very nearly forced him to throw aside his bow. Was it the green tears that streamed down her battered cheeks? The look of despair in her glittering eyes? Was it… pity? It felt as though he had met destiny itself simply from looking upon her.

            Over and over again he tried to find the answers to these questions but none, as always, were forthcoming. Instead Darkleer tried to occupy himself building machines and taking orders for artificial limbs for trolls foolish enough to lose them, but as soon as he finished each task placed before him he immediately went back to his regret. And his drink. This night was not much different from the last. The rotgut soporific he had imbibed was hardly working for him anymore but it brought a little warmth and some semblance of comfort. He broke down again into tears of self-pity, needing no catalyst, lamenting what a pathetic creature he had become.

            He hadn’t expected the apparition when it came to him, the entrance heralded by a sudden cold draft in the room.

            Something caused him pause and he looked up. He could feel the blood drain from his face and his heart quicken. When he finally opened his mouth he found that his voice sounded far weaker than it had ever sounded before.

            “You…Y-You’re… her,” he breathed as tears slipped down his angular features.

            With feline grace the beautiful ghost closed the distance between them. Darkleer knew immediately that it was her. Her eyes glowed a dull white, her expression melancholy, almost forlorn. Around her, long black hair flowed as though in water as she spoke in gentle tones.

            “I had once thought of seeking you out in life… but I could not bring myself to leave my exile. I was mad with grief; my heart was broken. Only in death have I been able to free myself enough to find you.”

            Her voice was as beautiful as she was, soprano and sweet, a purr in some of her words. She was clad in the same forest and olive green that she had worn when last he had seen her, though no longer spattered with her Beloved’s blood, and truly, aside from her eyes, it would have seemed she had stepped right out of time itself to visit him.

            “W-Why are you here?” he breathed.

            “For you.”

            “…For me?”

            “I’ve come for you, E%ecutor. It’s your time.”

            He startled, almost falling off his stool, barely making it to his feet to back away and slam against a wall.

            “What do you mean?”

            She remained calm, her eyes fixed on him, “Your time on Alternia has come to an end, E%ecutor. I have come to guide you to the other side.”

            The brutish troll swallowed, but his mouth was dry, his throat parched, and he found no relief, “…Revenge, then?”

            The Disciple shook her tousled mane, somewhat pensive, tilting her head to look at the floor.

            “No. Not revenge. I have long since left those feelings behind, though I’ve every right to it should I want it. I just thought… it might be easier if it were me to take you than for you to go alone. I do not know why.”

            The brute trembled, “But I spared you… will you not spare me?”

            She shook her head.

            “That’s not my decision to make, E%ecutor. I merely accompany you on this, your last journey.”

            “I… see.”

            The Disciple paused, “However I feel I must ask you something that has torn at my heart for all these sweeps: Why did you spare me?”

            Darkleer had to think hard for an answer.

            “…I knew it had to be. I had to let you go. I had to… protect you. It was as though I had no choice.”

            Her gaze slipped back to him, “So, you are saying it was… fate, then?”

            “Y-Yes.”

            “I see. Then… you and I were meant to be.”

            Once more he was at a loss for words, but the Disciple suddenly gave him a sorrowful smile.

            “…But we ended up like this, didn’t we? Imagine that.”

            The silence took over the room, enveloping it like a shroud, and Darkleer went to tears again, his shoulders bobbing as he held his hand to his brow to hide his shame from her.

            “I’m so sorry, I have failed you,”he whimpered from underneath the curtain of dark hair that framed his face.

            Then she was in front of him, holding up her hand to cradle his cheek. Her eyes were very kind as she patted him; calming and soothing.

            “Shhh. It’s all right now. It’s over now. We're finally free, you and I.”

            “I ruined your life. I ruined my own! If only I had known!”

            The Disciple continued to quiet him with kind words, the motions she had deep within her heart emerging, as though coming to the surface of a still lake. She was a small and delicate creature next to a great and fearsome beast, but despite their differences the two of them knew they were fated to watch over one another... even though the Condesce had torn them violently apart. If only life had been kinder to them both.

            Eventually the Disciple guided Darkleer back to his stone stool and continued to pat his back and hum to him as he laid down his head in his arms on the table to weep. His sobs gradually faded away as she quieted him. His broad shoulders ceased their rise and fall brought on from his anguish; his breathing slowed and grew quiet. Soon, there was nothing at all and he lay there quite still. After many sweeps awash in torment, The E%ecutor had finally passed away.

            Eventually the ghostly woman looked over her shoulder to see his mirror double standing there behind her, looking at his own hands. His eyes glowed the same dull white as hers, gone were the tears staining his cheeks as they had in life. Gone were the lines in his face from his age, brought on by sorrow. Gone were his all his scars. He was only left with the ideal image he had of himself in life. The Disciple turned and faced him, catching his eye, and held out her hand.

            “We’ve got a second chance. Let’s take it, shall we?”

            As his giant hand took hers, and he was so careful not to hurt her, he looked down at her smiling face. In the briefest of moments they both swept out of existence like an exhaled breath, and the cave was once more dark as night.

            Their exile was finally at an end. Finally, as it should have been, they were together. Together, they rejoined the stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this... and I hope you didn't go to tears like I did writing it. Oops. I'm a sucker for Sadstuck. No damn idea why I'm so prone to writing it.
> 
> This post was taken directly from my [Disciple AskBlog](http://askhisdisciple.tumblr.com/). Stop by and say hello. ♥ :33


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